Many in the traditional auto industry doubted that Tesla Motors (TSLA) could build an all-electric sedan from scratch in Silicon Valley. But next week the skeptics will witness the tech industry's most disruptive product launch of the year.

Tesla is counting down the hours to next Friday, when CEO Elon Musk will hand over the keys to a small group of customers who placed early reservations for the Model S sedan. It's a watershed moment for the Palo Alto-based company, manufacturing in California and the nascent electric vehicle industry, which has been struggling to live up to ambitious expectations.

"This is a tech product," said Theo O'Neill, an analyst at Wunderlich Securities who has been bullish on Tesla because the company is delivering the Model S ahead of schedule, something unheard of in the electric vehicle industry. "And it is bad news for the naysayers in Detroit who can't find their way out of a paper bag."

Tesla is building the Model S at the former NUMMI plant in Fremont, a site it bought in 2010 and transformed.

Invited for a rare visit to the plant, the first thing a reporter and photographer from this newspaper noticed were the vast parking lots. Empty when NUMMI shut down, they are now filled with cars and have dedicated spots for electric vehicle charging.

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Fresh orchids in a large vase greet visitors in the sleek lobby, where Tesla-branded T-shirts and jackets are for sale. Much of the cavernous facility has been painted a gleaming white, giving it a bright, clean and futuristic feel. The office space looks like a social media startup: an open floor plan filled with employees on computers, with no cubicles or private offices. On the factory floor itself, workers zip around on red bicycles or in electric golf carts because it takes too long to walk.

"People used to think we were a joke," said Gilbert Passin, Tesla's vice president of manufacturing, as he stood on "the bridge," a second-floor walkway overlooking the assembly line. "But there's no way you can come into this factory and not know we are completely serious. You cannot do this in your garage."

The Model S begins as a massive roll of aluminum that is cut into large sheets. From there, the aluminum is "stamped" into three-dimensional pieces, including doors, fenders, panels and roofs, using massive, 40-ton molds known as "dies." State-of-the-art robots from Kuka, a German company, feed the sheets into the hydraulic press line. Aluminum is far lighter than steel, allowing Tesla to increase the overall range of the vehicle. The Model S seats five adults with two child seats in the rear.

"Stamping is basically the structure of the vehicle, and 95 percent of it is made right here," said Passin, a native of France who joined Tesla after being general manager of production engineering for Toyota in North America. "It's very exhilarating to be able to produce a car. We have been working very hard to beat our internal targets. We do not have to rush, but we are working extremely fast."

Tesla is purchasing parts and raw materials from more than 100 U.S. suppliers, including from companies in California, Michigan and Tennessee.

After the vehicle is framed, painted, and goes through final assembly, each new Model S is subjected to a rigorous series of quality tests. Vehicles take what is essentially a shower with recycled water to check for sealing and leaks. There's also a "squeak and rattle" test that mimics the motion of driving on real roads. Because electric cars don't have tailpipe emissions, the test can be done inside the factory, without fear of fumes.

The Model S will come in 10 vibrant colors, but not all of the hues have been publicly revealed. The paint gloss on each car is so shiny that Tesla employees wear black patches over their wedding rings and watches to prevent even the slightest scratches.

The first 1,200 Model S vehicles delivered in North America will be from the limited-edition "Signature" series, which comes with an 85-kWh battery that Tesla said is capable of 300 miles per charge. They are listed at $87,900.

Two Model S Signatures have already been delivered. Musk has his, which is black, and venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson, who sits on Tesla's board of directors, has a red one with the license plate TSLA S1. A short video of Jurvetson climbing into the car before a sea of elated Tesla employees, all snapping photos with their smartphones, has been widely viewed on YouTube.

"It's stunningly beautiful, gorgeously engineered, represents the future," Jurvetson said in the video. "Sometime in the next year all of my cars will be electric. I will never buy gasoline again in my life, and I'm looking forward to that."

Tesla now has about 1,700 employees worldwide, including 800 at the Fremont factory. But for the Model S launch, many others have gathered in Fremont, including members of the Los Angeles-based design team and suppliers from Japan and elsewhere.

Currently, Tesla is making just one Model S a day as it focuses on quality control and gives meticulous attention to everything from the sound pouring out of the stereo system speakers to the gloss of the paint. Production volume is scheduled to slowly ramp up in coming months, and is expected to hit 80 to 100 cars a day by the end of the year. Tesla plans to make 5,000 cars by the end of 2012 and 20,000 in 2013, a low volume that will allow it to continually improve the manufacturing process.

More than 10,000 customers have put down deposits to reserve the Model S, which is being marketed through high-end retail showrooms and a nationwide "Get Amped" Model S Tour in which reservation holders will be invited to take test drives. The Get Amped tour begins in Fremont June 23 and 24, then goes on to Los Angeles, Seattle and elsewhere.

Within Tesla, there's a relentless focus on perfection, and the pride employees feel at this critical juncture in the company's young history is palpable.

"Elon Musk himself is extremely demanding as a person, and it should be this way," Passin said. "But independent of Elon, all of us are professionals. We want to make sure the car is perfect. We love building the Model S in California, and we're going to stay."

Contact Dana Hull at 408-920-2706. Follow her at Twitter.com/danahull.